Feather River Hatchery in Oroville closing along with fish ladders for summer maintenance

OROVILLE &GT;&GT; The fish ladders at the Oroville Diversion Dam are closed each summer, but usually the hatchery itself isn't.

This year, the Feather River Fish Hatchery will be closed for the summer, said Department of Water Resources acting branch chief Eric See.

"It is unusual," See said. "We haven't done it since 2008."

The work is necessary because the water supply line needs to be turned off and inspected, he said.

"We'll do the inspection, identify what repairs need to be made and do the repairs over the summer," See added.

The fish ladders, which thousands of salmon traverse yearly to the hatchery, will be shut down on June 30 for cleaning.

See said the Feather River hatchery will likely be closed by July 7, but Hatchery Manager Anna Kastner said the facility will be out of water by July 2.

There is no need to worry about fish. The fish are gone for now.

Normally, there are steelhead at the hatchery this time of year, but those were moved to the Thermalito annex facility on Highway 99, Kastner said.

The hatchery also usually has chinook salmon, too, but those were planted in the lake in May.

Besides inspecting and repairing the water lines, work will be done to an aeration tower and there will be other jobs that can't normally be done while the hatchery is running.

Kastner added it won't be a complete closure. Restrooms will still be open at the observation area by the Diversion Dam along with access to the facility. Also, there will be some access to the Feather River, though that may be affected by the salmon spawning habitat project underway in the river.

Although the salmon habitat project isn't related to the Fish Hatchery work, the timing is good because there won't be any water to the facility, Kastner said.

"We're supposed to do this every five years," she said. "We were going to do it last year but didn't get the paperwork ready."

And while there won't be any work with fish over the summer, staff will be onsite working.

"During a typical summer, we take care of steelhead and chinook, maintain the ponds, go through vehicles and do work we don't normally have time to do during the busy season," the manager said.

Kastner and See also said unlike hatcheries on the American River that had to evacuate fish due to concerns over the drought, the Feather River Fish Hatchery did not have to do so.

The steelhead and chinook fish were moved to facilitate the hatchery maintenance. "Normally water temperatures here have been fairly decent and we haven't had to move any fish at all," Kastner said.

Officials hope to have the work at the Feather River Fish Hatchery completed by the end of August and bring the steelhead back.